Comoros: Floods - Apr 2012

Glide: FL-2012-000066-COM

Overview

In an already intense rainy season, heavy rains inundated the Comoros Islands from 20 Apr 2012, causing the worst flooding in decades. The heavy downpours resulted in landslides, collapsed bridges, loss of livestock and contamination of rain water tanks, isolating many areas and impeding the evacuation of affected communities. Four people were killed and 83 were severely injured. 174 houses were completely destroyed, 307 houses lost their roofs and 1,774 were flooded. 64,987 people (8% of the total population) were directly affected by the floods (17,232 in Grande Comore; 30,063 in Anjouan and 17,592 in Mohéli). Another 80,000 people in Moroni and 3,900 in Mitsoudje were indirectly affected by broken water pumps.

Most small scale farmers lost their crops, which typically included bananas, coconuts, sweet potato, vanilla and cloves, as a result of the extensive damaged caused by rocks and debris as a result of the flooding. The floods covered the affected land with stones and sand, and resulted in hydro-geography changes in the landscape, opening new water ways, which poses a risk in terms of future floods.

Six months after the flooding, the situation in the country had improved significantly. Nevertheless, water quality remained a concern especially for households who are using water tanks. (IFRC, 3 Dec 2013)